During stimulation phases of wells for petroleum or water extraction, the use of acidizing compositions having high viscosities is important for a wide variety of purposes. For example, in acid fracturing, higher viscosity acidification fluids can help to maintain fracture width, minimize fluid leakoff, and increase acid penetration into the fracture. In matrix acidizing, higher viscosity can help to increase the uniformity of the treatment, especially in high-permeability formations with deep damage.
However, many viscosifiers are less effective or ineffective in acidic solutions, resulting in the use of larger amounts of viscosifiers to compensate for the acidic conditions, or the use of expensive acid-resistant viscosifiers. Pumping high viscosity materials into a subterranean formation can require a large amount of energy. In addition, the presence of certain ions in water can limit, reduce, or degrade the effectiveness of certain viscosifiers, which can limit the use of certain ion-containing water, such as sea water, or water recovered from or naturally produced by some subterranean formations. As a result, the oil and gas industry spends substantial amounts of money and energy to use large amounts of viscosifiers to compensate for acid or salt sensitivity, obtain expensive acid-resistant viscosifiers, obtain fresh water for acidizing applications, pump high viscosity materials into subterranean formations, and to avoid formations having substantial concentrations of particular ions.